Cuillin Ridge Diary 2006; Run up Coire Lagan

Sunday 21 May 2006
We awake late to a sunny, windy day. Jim goes alone and lightweight to the mountains, but first we stop down on the beach which has gone pale with crushed shells. I paddle, along the waterline and the water is not too cold. While Jim hurries towards the mountains, I sit in the sun, in the green garden, watching a robin feeding its young in a tree stump, looking at the beautiful garden, – a sea of bluebells with pink and orange flowering bushes standing in it. Ten cups of tea and coffee later, I am ready for action and go in a lightweight running style up into coire Lagan and sit in a small round bivvi site watching the great stone Shoot for signs of Jim. A cold wind blows but is sunny and the blue sky above the ridge makes me want to be up there on high, nearer to the sky. After a while I get up to leave, before spotting a tiny glimpse of orange far far away on the ridge, With binoculars I can see that it is Jim making his way along the ridge. So I go up the Stone Chute to meet him, taking the opportunity to practice my extra loud whistle as I go. We run back down together enjoying the sun and feeling good. Jim had found the fugitive route off the far side of Sgurr Thearlich, which will save us an abseil, and also some more of the Ridge, and drank from streams like an animal.